Chris McKay, Planetary Scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center, has traveled the world seeking Mars-like environments. In the Dry Valleys of Antarctica—his favorite Mars analog on Earth—Dr. McKay discovered a kind of algae living inside rocks porous to light and water. He’ll show us some of these rocks and talk about the physical conditions required for life.

Julia Child and physicist Philip Morrison once cooked up (and sampled) "primordial soup," a mixture of ingredients said to be the materials from which life sprang on Earth. How accurate is this notion? David Deamer studies how some molecules self-assemble into order, and has developed new theories about how life evolved from components on Earth. We’ll talk with him, do hands-on experiments, and watch vintage footage of Julia Child tasting the soup. Guests: David Deamer, Director, UC Berkeley SETI Program, and Karen Kalumuk, Exploratorium staff scientist.

We stayed up with Exploratorium scientist Ron Hipschman at the Lick Observatory in San Jose, California, for the best view we've had of Mars in a long, long time. At midnight on August 27, Earth and Mars passed closer to one another than they have in 60,000 years. Astronomers were on hand to tell us all about our nearest neighbor—its geography, orbit, and why both NASA and the European Space Agency have chosen this time to launch robotic missions to Mars.

In preparation for the 2004 landing of the Mars Exploration Rovers, NASA engineers and scientists tested their remote operation procedures using a rover called FIDO (field integrated design & operations rover). Our remote team traveled to the desert test site to see what they learned in the desert and what they hoped to learn on Mars.

Join the Origins team as they travel to Antarctica. We sent Mary, Noel, Paul, and Julie to explore scientific wonders from McMurdo to the Pole. Learn all about the extreme science being conducted at the South Pole in a daily dispatch from Terra Australis Incognita!

Webcasts made possible through
the generosity of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, The Jim Clark
Endowment for Internet Education, the McBean Family Foundation,.and the Corporation for Educational Networks Initiatives in California (CENIC).